Archive for 2011

This house, located in Annapolis, Maryland is built on the foundation of a 1960s post and beam modern house. The foundation was kept in an effort to retain it’s proximity to Crab Creek, an estuary that feeds the Chesapeake Bay. Strict environmental regulations prohibited enlarging the pre-existing footprint or adding significant square footage to the house. The house is organized around a linear bar, clad in white stucco.

The project is under construction at the edge of Bijlmerpark in the central area of Amsterdam-Zuidoost and is used as a housing complex for drug-addicted. As a typology it is very similar to a classical hotel. Small individual units of a size between 15-25m2 are surrounding a very generous lobby used as the central activity space for a group of up to 50 inhabitants. This “collective living room” has a beautiful rooflight and enjoys nice views on the park. On the top of this space is a little courtyard placed, offering the inhabitant’s an intimate outside space covered by the Amsterdam sky.

A new sports hall was to be constructed at the primary school in the district of Ubbedissen in Bielefeld because the old hall had not been consistent with modern requirements for a long time and also displayed great investment deficit. Besides the school the new hall was also intended for use by sports clubs so that it would enjoy better utilization. The new sports hall was to be built on fallow land near to the school that borders directly onto the existing sports fields.

The kindergarten is located in a grove of striking chestnut trees. Its rustic design celebrates a sense of open space and connection with its lovely environment. To meet the various needs of the children, the building is organised as a series of structures, each connected visually with the trees. Classrooms are organised around a hallway which gives onto a foyer affording floor to ceiling panoramic views of the encircling chestnuts.

The house is located in a private neighborhood outside the city, the land is flat and located in a corner, with neighbors to the south and east side, the west contains a large line of trees that separates the house from the street and takes a turn into the north where both entrances lie: one pedestrian and another one for cars, there are two bodies floating, the one on the left is a large box covered in gray stone that levitates over the street opening a gap where the cars are stored, the second body is transparent and light, larger and higher, which shows the pedestrian entrance, it is a volume of windows to the north and west sheltered by a white steel lattice, obeying the relationship with the sun, as this orientation is extremely hard in the city.

To provide a strong urban statement in newly forming cultural district;
To develop a clear visual strategy for the identity of the Opera which is simultaneously familiar and never-before seen;
To create a unique building for the center of the cultural district with a contemporary architectural approach shaped to optimize active and passive energy use.

Temple Sinai, the oldest and largest East Bay Jewish synagogue, has grown around their 1918 landmarked sanctuary with new buildings in a way that has disassociated all of their different activities. The Temple’s new building program included a new chapel, classrooms, a preschool, administrative offices, and a library, but most importantly the temple wanted a new design to organize these disparate elements into a place where their congregants could feel a greater sense of community where people could meet each other in casual spaces for spontaneous conversation.

The building is situated in the TÃ¼bitak MAM (Marmara Research Center) compound in Gebze, approx. 90 km east of Istanbul. The fact that the present operational structure of the company demanded a campus form which emerges from the coalescence of office spaces with the additional recreation, meeting and service areas lead us to a more diverse design than a conventional office building.

Birštonas is one of the four famous resorts of Lithuania. Balneological and mud therapy resort is famous for it‘s local mineral water. The city of Birštonas with it‘s 3200 population is situated in the loop of the biggest river in the very heart of Lithuania.

Montevideo 285 references the ceiling height of old houses, brings with it the balconies of Baroque houses (see 5th floor) and seeks architectural elements that could improve the quality of the products currently offered in the local real estate market — a nauseating sameness.